Christmas Break is Here!

Yahoo! Christmas break is offically here...until January 5th! This time of year is when being an underpaid teacher is so amazingly worth it!

With today being my first "work" day off, I'm left with the question...what do people do all day? By 11:00 a.m., I'd been grocery shopping, cleaned the microwave, finished laundry, visited my mom, played with the monk (a.k.a. Addison), finished wrapping Christmas presents and then contiplated what on earth I was going to do with the rest of my day! If it wasn't a snowstorm outside...I would go out an play in the snow. Well....I would follow Addison around while she played in the snow. Not that I'm complaining about my time off, I'm just so programmed to a daily school schedule, (math 9:10, recess 10:10, writing 10:25.....etc) I'm not sure what to do to fill my free time!

Here's some pictures to show a little of our day.

Addison is contemplating whether this gives her

a better view of "Little Mermaid"

This is what my wrapping buddy decided to do instead of helping .

Here's an added picture from Sunday with Addison in her new Christmas dress.

Merry Christmas!!!

This will take more than touch-up paint!

Bye, Bye Couch!

This is what happens when you try to fit a 96'' couch into the basement and around the corner. I was about ready to light the thing on fire after this happened...but my sister took it for her basement. Did I mention, she already has the exact same couch in her basement? Personally, I think a fire would have been more satisfying!

Trick-or-treating

Here are some pictures of Halloween. I know...it is December.
We ended up going around my parents street since I don't know any of my neighbors. Cadee, Kendall and Stockton came too. It was too funny that night because Addison came home from the baby-sitter's house that day already knowing how to say "Trick-or-Treat". Now everytime she holds a bag or basket of any kind, she walks up to anyone around and says, "Trick-or-Treat". Then she just stands there waiting for something to be put in it.

Waiting for some candy.

All ready to go!

Cadee, Kendall and Addison

Trick-or- Treating with dad!

Carving Pumpkins

Here are some fun pictures from when we carved pumpkins at our house with cousin Cadee. Both Addison and Cadee were afraid of all the gooey stuff on the inside so it was pretty funny to watch them scream whenever any seeds were pulled out!

Pumpkin Patch

On Friday afternoon we decided to head down to South Ridge Farms to check out the pumpkin patch. We figure we were the only ones left in Utah County that didn't have any pumpkin pictures on our blog! We had a great time and managed to get a deformed green pumpkin and avoid seeing any parents of students at the same time!


Here are some pictures:


I could point out that Addison left the lens cap on the camera, but her hand covering the lens seems to be the bigger problem.

Happy Anniversary!

On the 14th of this month, we celebrated our 6th anniversary! Some days it seems like it hasn't been that long, but then I think about all of the events and things we've learned about each other over the past 6 years...

~ We've lived in 3 different cities...Orem, Provo and Payson

~ I've had 5 cars and he has been through 5 company cars.

~ We have had 1 adorable daughter who is now 2! (yes, we survived two whole years without messing her up too much!)

~ I've worked in 2 school districts and 5 different schools.

~ He's worked for 3 different companies.

~ We have various churchcallings ranging from Primary to YM Presidency to teaching Sunday School and Elders's Quorum.

~ We've only had 1 pet...our Beta Fish named Myron. (yes...he died)

~ We've had 2 brothers serve missons and had 3 siblings and a mom get married.

~ We've traveled the country from the top to the bottom. (the bottom half is much warmer!)

~ We've tried to teach each other things....I'm still afraid of baseballs and I have no use for water that tastes like salt. He will never be able to be seen in public dancing.

~ We've discovered that going to Del Taco for your 5th anniversary will give you something to laugh about for years to come.

~ After 6 years, we still don't have "sides" to the bed.

~ I've learned that nothing will come between him and his 150 pairs of socks.

~ There are rules we've developed... Don't lay on the bed once it's been made. Always close the shower curtain. NEVER use the nice towels hanging in the bathroom. More soap isn't always better in the dishwasher.

~ I still don't cook!

And no, we didn't do anything for our anniversary. He bought me flowers and a new diamond ring which I made him take back. Strike 348 for being able to pick out jewelry I'll like. You'd think he would learn that I need to be there to pick it out! I of course, couldn't think of anything he wanted, needed or couldn't live without. Luckily, he agreed, there was nothing he wanted, needed or couldn't live without. LUCKY 4 ME! So, we look forward to next year's...I thought last year's Del Taco was going to be pretty hard to beat. With the way things are going, we'll completely forget next year's anniversary!

Update!

I know it's been over a month....so here's a quick update of what's been going on!

My little brother, Matt, got married (almost a month ago) to Ashlee Silcox in the Salt Lake Temple. That makes all 4 kids married now! We all got married in different temples which has been fun and our grandpa performed each of our sealings which we think is pretty cool too.

Here's a picture of Addison in her dress for the reception. I had to pin her down to get her into it and all she would say is, "I not tute!" (I must tell her she's cute too often...)

I started back to school the day after Matt's wedding last month and I have been crazy ever since. I have 32 4th graders this year...(compared to my small class of 18 last year), so my load has completely doubled. They're such a fun, smart group so I'm grateful that I lucked out that way. Now if I can ever get on top of anything at school. Everything takes twice as long to do, twice as long to correct, twice as long to get ready... if anyone needs to put in some nice community service hours, come visit my classroom night or day...because I'm sure I'll be there!

Let's see what else... I finally got my car fixed. Many of you know, I took my passenger mirror off last spring in the car wash... well, finally this summer, I scheduled my appointment to take it into the dealership to get it repainted at the mirror attached. THE EXACT DAY I made the appointment, the bikes that were hanging from the ceiling of my garage fell on top of the hood of my car. So needless to say, the damage was a bit beyond Ken Garff's expertise, and I had to take it into a body shop to get the hood, fender grill, mirror and bumper fixed. If your bikes are hanging from the roof of you garage, take them down!!! But at least I have my mirror fixed that has been missing since February!

Finally, I will be "single mom" ing it for a while. Willie is getting his degree in Respiratory Therapy. So with his intense class load, he goes days without seeing Addison because she's in bed by the time he gets home, and he's gone before she wakes up. It's been pretty hard on all of us so far just because all of his studying is so intense...but he looks so cute in his white lab coat!

Anyway, I think that post will last me at least another 6 weeks! If anything too exciting happens, I'll let you know!

Utah County Fair

Here are some pictures from when we went to the Utah County Fair last month.

Addison rode this ride 3 times!

This ride had way too many distractions!

Trying to let the giant cow out of his house!

Time for a nap!

Here's some random pictures....

Watering the grass.

Birthday lunch with dad.
It finally came...a week later....but I love it anyway!
Getting frustrated with people who tape presents shut!

3 seconds before my 4th bath at Fish Lake!
My new favorite hang out!
...even if all of me doesn't quite fit!
"winging" with dad.

My turn...

Sunday July 27th
A little about me...

4 places I go over and over:
1. Roberts Craft/Quilted Bear/Kirklands/Rod Works/Michaels/etc (it's a toss-up)
2. Wal-Mart or Target
3. My parent's house
4. My classroom

4 places I like to eat:
1. Olive Garden
2. Los Hermanos
3. Red Lobster (I only eat shrimp though)
4. I'm a closet lover of Betos' 3-rolled tacos with cheese and guac!

4 places I would like to be right now:
1. Sleeping (since it is 11:30 p.m.)
2. Getting my hair done
3. On a much needed vacation
4. SHOPPING!!!

4 t.v. shows I like:
1. Fox 13 News in the morning
2. 90210 re-runs (both the 3:00 and 4:00 hour)
3. Jon and Kate plus 8 (I feel so much better about my life after I watch them)
4. Anything on HGTV

4 Books I've enjoyed:
1. Watson's go to Birminham
2. Loser (Any 4th grader will read it just because of the name!)
3. Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type.
4. Megan the Klutz (it's a near classic!)

Who I am tagging:
1. anyone who hasn't done this yet!

Best Husband...Worst Wife

Last night, we decided on a whim that we really needed night alone. We quickly checked the movie times to see which one we would be able to make in time given our short notice plans. The only one we could have made it to was in Spanish Fork seeing Mama Mia, not that either of us wanted to see it anyway. (He was all for the new Batman movie) The entire ride over, I'm trying to convince him it can't possibly be that bad. I kept telling him, "Pierce Brosnan's in it, he's 007 cool & Boostrap Bill from Pirates is in it too!"
Of course, we were the first in the theatre, (thanks to the entire town of Spanish Fork being at the rodeo...) Slowly, a few more people started to arrive....a group of giggly middle aged women, a bunch of teen girls...after a while, we realized he was the only guy in the place. Then as luck would have it....another man walked into the theatre. True, he was probably 90, but it still counts. The entire time, he was rolling his eyes so much and laughing at how lame the acting seemed, I kept feeling worse and worse that not only was I making him sit through it, I was sitting through it too! As soon as the credits began, we bolted for the door laughing all the way to the car. As we were driving out of town, he declares that he needs to see the new Batman at least 3 times in a row to cleanse his mind of the past 2 hours! If you want to get a rise out of him, just break into your own rendition of "Dancing Queen" just to make sure he won't forget our evening!

We've survived 2 whole years!

Addison is TWO! I can't believe it. I'll cover it more when her gift gets here from back order, and I get the pictures from her party up on-line. Until then, you get this picture. Addison is a ball of energy, so what better way to put it to use. Someday...eventually...this will show up in the mail and then you can see it in real life, with a much cuter kid jumping on it. Until then you'll have to use this for a mental picture:

On Board

Lindsey made me jump on board this blogging thing. I figure I'll work on it this summer and then probaby die down a little with it when things get hectic this fall. I have 30 kids in my class this year. It should be crazy and fun. I'm now starting to get into all of the back to school sales trying to get my classroom ready. If anyone wants to pick up your quota of notebooks and folders at the local ShopKo give me a holler! If not I fear I will be going through the line 10 times each day since most of the stuff I need has a limit of 5 per customer!

So while I get the hang of this, feel free to comment and let me know you stopped by!